1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data recording system and, more particularly, to a data recording system applicable to a radiation image recording process in which a radiation image storage medium, e.g. a panel having a stimulable phosphor layer is exposed to a radiation transmitted through an object to store therein a latent image associated with the object and, afterwards, it is exposed to stimulating rays to read out the stored latent image.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Radiation image recording systems of the type described are known to the art (as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,527). When numerous radiation image storage panels of stimulable phosphor should be handled at the same time as often occurs before or after radiation exposure, how to identify the individual radiation image storage panels is the critical problem. Such a problem becomes particularly severe when exposed panels from different exposing rooms or locations must be managed for image processing concentratively at a processing center.
For the management of the radiation image storage panels and reproduction of the stored images, it is usually required to supply various kinds of information such as characteristic data of objects as typified by patients' names, radiation exposure data including the dates of exposure and the amounts of radiation or the exposed parts of objects, and image characteristic data as exemplified by distributions of stored radiation amounts. There has been proposed a method in which characteristic or specific identification codes are assigned to individual radiation image storage panels so that they can be compared with the data recorded on a sheet or stored in a computer for the purpose of image processing, for example. However, it is extremely time consuming to identify the codes of numerous panels and search for their matching data. According to another known method, a magnetic recording medium or a label containing a photochromic material may be fit to each radiation image storage panel or a cassette containing it so as to carry information thereon (see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 168,803, for example). This method, however, differs in principle from the storage of a radiation image in a stimulable phosphor and, accordingly, some additional data reading apparatus with a physical, chemical, electrical or mechanical operating principle is required in order that such data may be read out at a processing center simultaneously with the reproduction of radiation images of objects.